On Arendt 's View Of Popular Culture Based On Political Philosophy

During Hannah Arendt’s whole life she had been focusing on and thinking about thesituation of "human". She divided human activities into "labor","work" and "action",corresponding to the three major domains of society: private domain, social domainand public domain. Arendt held that when humans are doing labor, they exist asanimals, and the purpose of labor is to maintain the most basic necessity of human life;when people are in manufacturing, they exist as human beings, but manufacturingstandard is utilitarian and functional, so humans are not completely free humans; onlywhen people are in action and show themselves in the public domain, can humansexist as human and have freedom.As for the goals of public domain activities, either cultural or political, they do notmeet people’s needs, but give meaning to human life. Therefore, between culture andpolitics there exists a common and essential characteristic: in the public domain,plural humans’ free "action" and "speech". Arendt introduced her original thought of"politics" into her analysis and criticism of "culture","art","action" and "publicdomain" to form a unique view of mass culture. Arendt thought that, when themajority of population were emancipated from the heavy labor, humans entered intoan era of "mass entertainment" which was to consume all. However, the intrusion ofprivate domain into public domain makes our culture and people difficult to avoidmisfortune. Culture is constantly devalued and consumed, so diverse people are tamedand become obedient and single. They have lost the ability of "action"...... Based onthe present situation and cultural crisis, it is necessary to find some inspiration fromAhrendt’s thoughts.This paper will study Arendt’s view of mass culture which was based on politicalphilosophy, mainly from the following four parts:The first part will analyze the political philosophy base of Arendt’s view of massculture. Arendt’s view of mass culture was based on political philosophy. In order to understand it more profoundly and comprehensively, it is necessary to clarify amasterstroke: Political Philosophy--public domain--action. On this basis, this partwill explore Arendt’s new explanation about politics, and the inevitable relationshipbetween politics and culture.The second part is the main content of Arendt’s view of mass culture. Arendtthought that mass culture is the product of the social field, and also a part of life, asyndrome of culture and politics. Her view is exactly the answer to the source and theessential feature of mass culture and how mass culture becomes a cultural andpolitical crisis and what changes will it bring to people.The third part is the characteristics of Arendt’s view of mass culture. Bycomparison with other mass culture research schools, this part makes it clear thecharacteristics of Arendt’s view of mass culture: the dialectical feature ofunderstanding, unique political feature, and distinct humanistic feature. First, Arendtcriticized mass culture, but she could dialectically think about the value of massculture. She thought that as long as the domains of mass culture could be limited itwould be fine. Secondly, Arendt established an essential connection between cultureand politics which are irrelevant to each other and she gave political meaning toculture. Finally, through the criticism of mass culture, Arendt thought that the realculture should have the humanistic care to the world.The fourth part is about the enlightenments and shortcomings of Arendt’s view ofmass culture. The great originality, profundity and positive features of Arendt’s viewof mass culture enlighten us that we should keep the depth of the study of massculture, objectively treat China’s mass culture and bear in mind the responsibilities ofa public intellectual. Arendt’s thought also has its limitations, such as the omission andcontempt of body, strong Utopian feature, etc.